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 Exchange Server 2003 Mailbox Recove...
Exchange Server 2003
Exchange Server 2003 Mailbox Recovery Center

Topic Last Modified: 2005-10-31

By Nino Bilic.

When you use the Mailbox Recovery Center, you can perform reconnect or export operations on multiple disconnected mailboxes at one time. This ability is an improvement over Microsoft® Exchange 2000 Server, where such operations had to be done individually on each disconnected mailbox (a disconnected mailbox is a mailbox that is not associated with a user in Active Directory® directory service, usually because the user has been deleted), or you had to use a tool like MBCONN to help you reconnect multiple mailboxes at the same time.

Because of some operating system differences, choosing the mailbox store that you want to recover mailboxes from is different depending on whether you run Microsoft Windows® 2000 Server or Windows Server™ 2003.

If Exchange Server 2003 Is Running on Windows 2000 Server

Use this procedure if you are running Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange System Manager (ESM) on a computer that runs Windows 2000 Server.

To specify a mailbox store to work with ESM on Windows 2000 Server

  1. Start Exchange System Manager.

  2. Expand Tools, right-click Mailbox Recovery Center, and then click Add Mailbox Store.

  3. In Add mailbox store(s), click the mailbox store you want to work with, and then click Add. You can add multiple mailbox stores in this manner.

  4. Click OK to add the store. After the store has been added, the details pane will list any disconnected mailboxes in that store.

If Exchange Server 2003 Is Running on Windows Server 2003

Use this procedure if you are running Exchange Server 2003 and ESM on a computer that runs Windows Server 2003.

To specify a mailbox store to work with ESM on Windows Server 2003

  1. Start Exchange System Manager.

  2. Expand Tools, right-click Mailbox Recovery Center, and then click Add Mailbox Store.

  3. In the Add mailbox store(s) dialog box, specify criteria for identifying the store and the mailboxes you want to work with.

  4. In the Enter the object names to select box, type the name of the mailbox store you want to work with.

    Note:
    If you are unsure about which mailbox store you need, click Advanced, specify criteria, and then click Find now to locate the mailbox store. Select the appropriate mailbox store, and then click OK to return to the Add mailbox store(s) dialog box.

  5. Click OK to add the store. After the store has been added, the details pane will list any disconnected mailboxes in that store.

After you identify the mailboxes that you want to recover, you need to connect those mailboxes with Active Directory accounts.

To reconnect mailboxes to Active Directory accounts

  1. Right-click the mailbox you want to match to a user (or group), and then click Find Match. You can select multiple mailboxes simultaneously.

  2. If the match was found, you will see the User Name column populated for mailboxes that have a match. Right-click those and choose the Reconnect option. Selecting Reconnect runs a wizard that performs the reconnection process.

    Exchange System Manager Mailbox Recovery Center

  3. If a mailbox matches more than one user (or if no match exists), right-click that mailbox, and then click Resolve Conflicts. Follow the instructions in the Mailbox Conflict Resolution wizard to identify a single matching user.

    Note:
    When resolving conflicts, you can select only one mailbox at a time.

Exchange Mailbox Export Wizard (Mbconn.exe) can be used to create the Local Data File (LDF) file and for importing the file to Active Directory. Creating and importing this file creates Active Directory accounts for disconnected mailboxes that no longer have associated accounts in Active Directory (in other words, Active Directory accounts that have been previously deleted).

To run the Mailbox Export Wizard

  1. Select the mailbox (or mailboxes - you can select more than one) that you want to export; right-click them and then select the Export option.

  2. On next page, click Next. Then, select the fields that you want to export. For maximum information, you can select all of the available fields. Click Next.

    Mailbox Export Wizard Select Fields

  3. On the Destination Container page, choose the Destination Container.

    Note:
    This container is not the one where you will export the mailbox information, but it is a container where you want those accounts to be created after you import the LDF file.
    Mailbox Export Wizard Choose a Container window

  4. On the File Information page, you can choose the path for the export file. You can also select either to append to the existing export file or to replace the existing export file. Click Next to continue with the file generation.

    Mailbox Export Wizard Choose Filename Window

If you want to see the information that you can import into Active Directory using LDIFDE, open the LDF file that the Mail Export Wizard created.

Malbox Export Wizard Sample LDF file

For more information, see the Exchange Server TechCenter Getting Started page.

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